My Account
After a career on cargo ships, Ernie Seagar dropped anchor in Stillwater 25 years ago seeking peace and quiet. Although he now spends his days enjoying the view of the Weiti River from his home, and taking his launch for the odd fishing expedition, Ernie has also been a mover and shaker for Stillwater, both in his role as Commodore of the Boating Club and as a resident determined to improve local roads. He spoke to Terry Moore about life ashore.
I joined the boat club when we first came to Stillwater 25 years ago, and my wife said “whatever you do, don’t join the committee” because I was president of the Ponsonby Cruising Club for many years and you get tied up in meetings a lot. I took her advice for about six months, and then I got talked into standing as Commodore. I’m now on my second stint at the helm of the boat club. We moved here to get away from the rat race. I grew up in Devonport, in the days when everyone there knew each other, and worked in Takapuna where I was a chief ship’s engineer and had my own marine engineering business. I was brought up around boats: I was practically born on my grandad’s steam launch, my family was on it so much. When the family went fishing, I went with them. Like a lot of the launches, we carried sails in those days and used those as well as the engine when we went cruising around the Barrier for a week or so, which was absolute paradise. Then we would chop down some ti-tree and use it to fire up the engines and come back home again.
When I began my career as a marine engineer, it was a lifetime job. Most blokes expected to stay with the same company for life, and they looked after you like family, but over the years you became just a cog in the wheel. Bean counters started to run things and they didn’t listen to experienced workers. I once told them there was a problem with a ship and they did nothing about it. Eventually there was a breakdown and the port engine blew so the ship ended up tied up in Lyttelton for seven months at huge expense. What I liked about going to sea was the machinery. The ship’s engine rooms were kept spotless, and a lot of pride was taken in the work. Of course it was also a nice way to see the world for nothing and my wife came with me a few times. As chief engineer you had beautiful accommodation. The longest trip I did was six months to Europe, and often went into the Pacific for two or three weeks. The biggest ship I worked on was 5000 tons, whereas nowadays the container ships (or box boats as we call them) can get to 50,000 tons. I stopped going to sea around 10 years ago, but it’s in my blood and I still miss it. For recreation I have an old launch that I bought in 1970 and overhauled with a friend. I go out fishing or cruising every opportunity I can – most of the older boaties go out during the week when it’s quieter, because during the weekend it’s a madhouse. The fishing is good – there is still a feed of fish out there if you want one, despite the rising numbers of boats.
Stillwater’s older residents have noticed over the last five years that there are more new people, either renting or moving into older homes. The city is catching up with us. Some people say ‘good morning’ to you, and some don’t, but overall, Stillwater people are very friendly. There are a couple of hundred houses here now, yet most of the faces are familiar, even if I don’t know their names. Peace and quiet is the main thing we like about it, and that is why a lot of the older people are worried about the noise that will come from the Penlink Bridge. Sounds amplify and echo in this valley – you can hear people talking at night-time from a long way away – and in a northerly we can hear traffic from Whangaparaoa Road, like a dull drone all the time. If they built sound shields on the side of the bridge, it would be appreciated, but I don’t think we will get anything but the bare essentials. We asked about an on/off ramp for Stillwater, as locals don’t want it to be just a main artery for Whangaparaoa, but that seems unlikely. There will still be bottlenecks on Whangaparaoa Road even if the bridge is built – it will do nothing for commuters from the Gulf Harbour and Army Bay end of the peninsula.
My grandkids visit from Papakura and in five minutes they’re in the water. They love Stillwater. My wife wasn’t keen to live here, but I’d actually already owned the place for two years before I told her about it. Now you couldn’t move her with a crowbar. We can sit in bed and look at the river flowing along and the bush on the northern shore. The bird life around here is magnificent with wood pigeons, rosellas, kingfishers and pheasants living in the bush. If the Penlink Bridge is built, it will mean chopping a huge hole in that bush and losing a lot of the birds.
Developers had grand ideas for the campground here and then the economic downturn got them, so it’s on the back burner at the moment. The development will bring in more people, some of whom will be boaties, and that will put more pressure on what we have here – but that’s just progress; you can’t stop it. Traffic is already becoming a problem, especially the speed of the drivers. You used to turn off East Coast Road and drive down to Stillwater without passing a single car coming the opposite way. Everyone used to undo their safety belts and drive slowly down the road – it was part of the relaxed feel of the place. The way the road is now, it’s more good luck than good management that someone hasn’t been killed. People cut over the centre line and the road is deteriorating and needs new seal. It was never designed to take the sort of pressure it gets these days. There are more commuters moving here and there is traffic on the road at 5am going into the city. I can see the day when there will be rail as far as Orewa and through to Helensville. It is the only efficient way to move people around in big cities.
The boat club has a membership of more than 200 – not all locals, but from the Bays, Albany and further north. Our boat ramp is very popular. It is a private one, built by the members. There is discussion about making a new ramp nearer the wharf but that would impinge on the haul out yard, so the current committee feels it is better to upgrade the existing one. We are patching it, but we hope to get funding to reseal the top of it altogether. All this is paid for by the club. We charge for use of the ramp via an honesty box and there are confrontations about this almost every day because people think it is a public ramp. It’s not pleasant, but we have to get the money in. The club lets many community groups use its facilities and recently our tanks emptied twice because of the numbers using it. We have to replace that water at our cost, yet we only charge a nominal fee to use the clubrooms. It’s also not safe for kids to be running around while we’re moving large boats. That’s one of my main worries. We don’t mind helping the community, but this club has gone about as far as we can go. There is a strong call for a new community hall to take the pressure off the boat club.
Stillwater has always gone ahead and done things despite largely being ignored by Rodney District Council. We keep plugging away at issues that are important down here. I used to go to the Council meetings every month around 10 years ago when Brian Sharplin was chief executive. I wasn’t Commodore then, just a ratepayer fed up unsealed roads causing dust in the tank water and safety issues for drivers. I harped on about it until the Council agreed to spend some money on it. I was a real squeaky wheel. I remember at one meeting a guy from Orewa was going on about the colour of the flagstones in central Orewa and it was too much for me; I stood up and said, “we haven’t even got a bloody footpath in Stillwater”. Despite the problems, a lot of the older people wanted the road to stay rough and rural, to suppress traffic. They were very possessive of the area and didn’t want more people coming here. Even now there are a lot of residents who want it to remain as it is, but you can’t control development. People who move to Stillwater now will find a rural, peaceful place and a community resistant to change. ‘If you don’t like it, go back where you came from’ would be the attitude of many – there’s only one way to do things around here.
